Wines produced
GRANBAZAN ETIQUETA AMBAR – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN ETIQUETA VERDE – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN LIMOUSIN – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN DON ALVARO DE BAZAN – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN VEIGALOBOS – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
Winery presentation
Owner / winemaker
Pedro Martinez Hernandez
Region
Galicia
Appellation
Rias Baixas
Presentation
Ask a Spanish wine professional to name the leading and best Albariño, and chances are they’ll reply GRANBAZAN. Top restaurants and wine shops all over Spain list the distinctive green and amber labels, which once seen – and tasted – are rarely forgotten !
Founded in 1981, Granbazan was the original quality pioneer in the region, the first estate to invest in modern winemaking equipment and trained enologists, the first to use clean, free run juice and cool fermentation to realize the world class potential of the Albariño grape.
Today, Granbazan remains ahead of the chasing pack, with its privileged terroir of granite soils planted with mature vines close to the sea, and its continuing commitment to excellence.
“Etiqueta Verde” clearly demonstrates the quality of the estate, with precision, depth, and a fine balance of floral and mineral flavors. “Etiqueta Ambar”, 100% free run from the oldest vines, is the Granbazan signature wine, the most elegant and complete Albariño! The estate’s special wines are equally exciting if not more. The Veigalobos is an excellent example with very limited Bottles produced for a wine of extreme quality & complexity.
Wines produced
GRANBAZAN ETIQUETA AMBAR – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN ETIQUETA VERDE – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN LIMOUSIN – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN DON ALVARO DE BAZAN – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
GRANBAZAN VEIGALOBOS – RIAS BAIXAS (WHITE)
Grape varieties planted
Albariño
Size of Vineyard
15.5 hectares of estate vineyards, plus long-term contracts with growers owning well-situated plots.
Average age of the vines
35 years old on average
Location
The extraordinary mansion and cellars are located in Tremoedo, 3km from the sea behind Vilanova de Arousa. This is the heart of the Salnes valley subzone of Rias Baixas, north of Pontevedra, which many commentators regard as the best for fresh, mineral-driven Albariño. The chateau is surrounded by the vineyards.
Soils
Granbazán’s vineyards grow on granite soils, providing excellent drainage and mineral expression that contributes to the freshness and precision of its Albariño wines.
Viticulture & Winemaking
The vines are trained along the traditional “parra,” which is typical of wet and rainy areas. Vines trained in this way see their leaves and clusters expand horizontally across a high plane parallel to the ground from a height of 1.8m, which facilitates airflow, reducing the need for excessive sprays, and in turn promoting sustainable practices which ensure a harmonious ripening season for the grapes.
The grapes are hand-picked, destemmed, cooled and loaded into rotary maceration tanks for 6 to 12 hours of cold maceration. The best parcels are seperated as free-run juice and the others are gently pressed. Then the musts are settled and cleared before fermentation in stainless steel and glass-lined concrete tanks, using cultured and wild yeasts. “Verde” is blended from free run and gently pressed juice, while “Ambar” is 100% free run juice. Both are aged on the fine lees in tank for 4 to 5 months before bottling.
Cuvée Don Alvaro is a special reserve, which is fermented 8 weeks on the lees with batonnage, then 20 months in tank, and then further ageing in bottle before release. It does not see any oak. The Veigalobos is a bit more special being a single vineyard wine. 80% of the grapes were pressed extrmrly gently and 20% were fermented as whole berries. The fermentation was carried out very slowly taking a couple months to complete the process. After this, the wine was left in contact with its lees for about 27 months.
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